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"Exactly ten years ago this month, the Middle
East was aflame in conflict and was drowning in
bloodshed and oil spills. But unlike today's
violent uprisings, the 1991 battle was predicated
on the United States' unofficial declaration of war
on Iraq. Operation Desert Storm was declared a
dubious victory nearly ten years ago. But for the
men and women who fought, the horrors of the war
are far from over. More than any other soldiers in
recent memory, Gulf War veterans are afflicted with
a litany of mysterious physical and emotional
ailments. Unlike the veterans of Korea and Vietnam,
however, the government and general public have
offered Desert Storm vets little respect, sympathy
or appreciation for enduring the thankless war for
our economic interests. 'I made a pact with the
devil when I was over there,' recalls Gulf War vet
John R. Johnson. 'One day, it got so bad, I was
screaming at the top of my lungs, Somebody open up
the sand and suck me in, because hell has to be
better than this!' 'There were guys in my platoon
who came back and they had these huge tattoos:
'Desert Shield,' 'Desert Storm,' these big bulldogs
on 'em,' says Sean Nichols. 'And I'm like, 'Are you
kidding? You played Game Boy just like I did.
What is this?' 'People think Gulf War vets didn't
go through what they should have gone through,'
says Steven Williams. 'And I feel for those vets
because I know how quickly and how soon you're
forgotten.' 'Echoing a common Gulf-veteran refrain,
Willie Gonzalez say s the military chewed him up
and spit him out. Two months after coming home, he
began to experience the fatigue, depression, joint
pains and urinary tract infections characteristic
of Gulf War syndrome."
"The Gulf War syndrome afflicts thousands of
veterans worldwide - many of whom never saw combat
- and is believed to have contributed to 6,000 to
9,000 postwar deaths. A tentative diagnosis
relates the illness and deaths to biological nerve
agents. In the U.S., many of these veterans have
been denied veterans' disability benefits and
others have been ordered to take non-FDA-approved
nerve gas drugs, some were actually nerve agents
themselves."
Reminds us of how our government treated (or
actually refused to treat) all the veterans who had
contact with Agent Orange in Viet Nam.
Source: February,
2001
Related information: War
* * *
You may be obliged to wage war, but not to use
poisoned arrows. - Baltasar Gracian
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